Der Lowe & die Pfingstrose
Mumei · Tetsu · Iroe takazogan · Mokko-gata · Edo-Zeit
Botan Shishi Tsuba
The iron speaks first. This is a plate that has been through centuries, its surface a landscape in itself — rough, pitted, uneven in the way that only genuine age produces. No nanako, no engraved ground, no texture applied after forging. The iron is simply what it is. On the omote, almost nothing: two small clusters of pine or grass at the lower margin, a few gold accents. The upper field: empty. The iron does not need filling. Then the ura.
Shakkyo: Das Noh-Stueck hinter dem Motiv
The shishi and the peony carry the weight of the Noh play Shakkyo — the Stone Bridge — in which a priest on pilgrimage reaches a legendary bridge over a ravine in China. No ordinary person can cross: the bridge leads to the paradise of Monju Bosatsu. As the priest waits, a shishi appears among the peonies on the other side: A divine lion, playing in the mountain paradise. The composition shows the mountain paradise of the Pure Land but eliminates the expected bridge. This is an instance of rusu moyo, a design element that is suggested but not explicitly depicted. The bridge is absent here, as it is absent in the finest Shakkyo-themed tosogu. Its absence is the point.
Das Objekt
The shishi on the ura is applied in high iroe takazogan: dark shakudo with fine curling mane detail, gold eyes, a second smaller figure leaping to the right. A diagonal arc of gold dots descends from them. Lower right, the peony: silver for the large flower, gold for the leaves, rendered in careful takabori. At the lower center, small gold grass shoots mark the ground plane. The mokkō-gata form is generous and slightly irregular; organic rather than geometric. The hitsu-ana are open on both sides.
Mumei und Einordnung
The piece carries no signature. The technique — high-relief applied elements in multiple metals on a rough iron ground — is consistent with several late Edo schools. The quality of the shishi carving is the most reliable indicator: the mane individually resolved, the face expressive without caricature, the body compact and powerful. These are not workshop repetitions of a stock motif. Without papers the attribution remains open. What the object confirms: a serious Edo-period iron tsuba of real quality, carrying one of the most philosophically loaded subjects in Japanese visual culture.
Tetsu Shishi Tsuba
Tsuba. Mumei. Tetsu, iroe takazogan in shakudo, kin und gin. Mokko-gata. Shishi-botan zu / Shakkyo no zu. Edo-Zeit. Privatsammlung, erworben in Polen.